Tender is the Bite

By Lilly Behbehani on November 3, 2018

Aside from having the best sports, people, and field, B-CC is also home to the best chicken tender vendor in the DMV right across the street. If you haven’t already guessed what restaurant I’m talking about, you might want to ask your counselor to get switched into a Barons 101 class.

Sprout Cafe. Hearing that name should get you excited for 11:13 AM. Some would compare Sprout to a well-organized brand like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Nobu, etc. As soon as you see those off-white containers, sometimes adorned with a “Boar’s Head” sticker, you know that that lucky person has just found the holy grail.

Freshmen, if you haven’t yet had the chance to fight the crowd and order chicken tenders, you should get on that ASAP. One could consider Sprout’s Chicken Tenders a rite of passage and if you have never had them, you have never truly sweat blue and gold. An easier analogy for the freshies: getting Sprout’s Chicken Tenders is like mining and finding gold in California during the Gold Rush.

How does Sprout really achieve the perfect ratio of fries to chicken? The breaded, but not too-breaded chicken tender? The crisp yet soft french fry? That, my friend, is the Sprout Cafe secret. If you aren’t convinced so far, hear it from an upperclassman. Senior Josh Townes says that they are “lowkey crispy” and emphasizes the fact that if you don’t eat Sprout’s Chicken Tenders, you don’t go to B-CC.

The only thing up for debate is if honey mustard deserves a place in the container. Is the honey mustard taking up precious fry space or is it what adds flavor to the American food experience? Did Sprout accidentally order a surplus of honey mustard and this is their way of getting rid of it? Or is this a meticulous and well-thought out move by food scientists? Stephanie Stein, a junior who has been going to Sprout almost every day since freshman year, says she goes so often because the Chicken Tenders are “just so good” and states “here at B-CC, we bleed blue and honey mustard.”

A warning to all: Sprout’s Chicken Tenders also act like magnets once you step on BCC’s property. That one random person you talked to for three seconds on a random day that happens to remember your name will ask for a french fry. Your twice-removed cousin’s dog’s new owner’s uncle’s daughter’s best friend will ask you for some of your meal. Your teacher is not eyeing your container because they don’t want you to eat; they are eyeing it because they are salivating, waiting for you to offer them a piece of heaven. Honestly, Sprout is ready for a Michelin Star.

No one will ever know how Sprout stumbled onto the great chicken tenders recipe, but for now, we should just enjoy this great blessing right across the street from this fine institution.